Shrewsbury 8, Hudson 5: Hawks dealt a dose of reality

For the Hudson baseball team, a win in the championship game of the ninth annual John Ahearn Tournament on Thursday afternoon would have made this week a little easier to swallow for everyone. Unfortunately, after Hudson broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Shrewsbury responded quickly. In th...

For the Hudson baseball team, a win in the championship game of the ninth annual John Ahearn Tournament on Thursday afternoon would have made this week a little easier to swallow for everyone.

Unfortunately, after Hudson broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Shrewsbury responded quickly. In the top half of the fifth inning, the Colonials scored six runs and eventually came away with an 8-5 victory, clinching a third Ahearn title in four seasons.

For the Hawks, now 3-1, the loss was a bit of a jolt after starting out so hot this season.

"There was one main difference between today and Tuesday," said Hudson coach Tim Reinhardt. "When we scored some runs and got a lead on Tuesday we were able to execute in all three phases - on the mound, in the field and at the plate. Today we just couldn’t put it all together and Shrewsbury has a lot to do with that. They’re a very good baseball team."

After teams each scored two runs in the first inning, the game remained that way until the bottom of the fourth.

It was then that Hudson's Bryan Carter led off the inning with a single to center. Connor Baron followed with a perfect bunt and reached safely, prompting designated hitter James Adams to drive them both in with a two-run single to left for the 4-2 lead.

Later, an RBI groundout to third off the bat of Mike Santos with two outs scored Austin Bruneau, who had walked earlier in the inning.

Hudson had what seemed like a comfortable three-run lead heading to the fifth inning. The Colonials (5-0) answered right back, though.

Hudson starter Kyle Sullivan, who had pitched effectively until that point, yielded six runs in the top of the fifth inning before being lifted with two outs in the frame.

In all, Sullivan gave up eight runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.

"Kyle always pitches so hard for us. He puts everything he has into his starts, so this one’s tough," said Adams. "We could have definitely done more at the plate to help him out today and we just had some poor at-bats. This is sort of a wake up call for us and it gives us a chance to sort of hit the reset button and bring us back down to earth a bit. Right now we’re not as good as maybe we started thinking we were."

After the long fifth inning, Hudson never really threatened again, mustering just one hit for the remainder of the game as Shrewsbury starter Jeff Svendsen went all seven innings to pick up the win.

"This was a tough game to lose," said Hudson second baseman Ben Palatino. "For me in particular, I really wanted to win this for the Ahearn family because I’m very close with them, but we all wanted to win it and do them proud. Hopefully this motivates us moving forward now for the rest of the season."

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Hudson’s Pat Cadden, Adams and Palatino were all named to the All-Tournament team.

In the consolation game, Marlborough fell to Shepherd Hill 6-0. The teams were scoreless through the first four innings, but a six-run bottom of the fifth was all Shepherd Hill needed to come away with the victory.

"Our starting pitcher John O’Brien pitched really well for just about (five)innings," Marlborough head coach Paul Duplessis said after his team fell to 3-2. "He got to about 80-85 pitches and just got tired, started getting the ball up and they took advantage of it before we could get out of the jam."

As for the overall John Ahearn tournament experience, Duplessis was nothing but complimentary despite not being able to come away with any wins.

"We’d love to be able to come back here again," he said. "(Hudson) has a beautiful field and they do an excellent job getting it ready and being very cordial. This was a great experience for our kids early on in the season and I hope we get to do it again."

Chris Coppola was the lone Marlborough player named to the All-Tournament team.